How a snowball survived getting submerged into molten steel

Do snowballs have a chance in hell? Up for a good challenge, the engineers over at GE set out to answer that question as part of the company’s celebration of Thomas Edison’s birthday this year.

What GE attempted to do was to submerge a snowball in molten steel and see if it survives. Of course, the snowball was clothed in high-tech materials. By itself, it wouldn’t stand a chance. And, naturally, there’s video for this imaginative stunt.

GE created a nickel-based alloy lined with a fibrous insulation made of alumina silicate to protect the snowball. Before putting it inside the vessel, GE placed the snowball in a 3D-printed spherical plastic container that was surrounded with dry ice.

After securing the cargo, GE poured molten steel on top of the special vessel, surrounding it with temperatures of up to 1,100 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, inside the nickel container, temperatures were supposed to stay at around minus 100 Celsius. And they did.

Yes, GE pulled off the trick, proving that it’s got the skills to come up with materials that can withstand brutal conditions.

Check out the video below to see how GE did it, and read more details about it at this link.